Matt vs the MCU

I will say that The Avengers (or Avengers Assemble, or whatever we're supposed to call it these days) is still effortlessly the best Avengers film. For one it has real emotional stakes in it (Coulson's death remains genuinely affecting, for the only time it's possible to give a shit about Tony and Pepper, and Black Widow and Banner feels like an actual connection), and for another it has an ending which isn't "two dudes punching each other", which always gets a big thumbs up from me. Tony's self-sacrifice feels like genuine character development as well, and that's incredibly welcome, and Loki's the best villain the MCU will ever have. And blow me if I don't laugh my ass off every time I see Hulk grabbing Loki and just throwing him about like a rag-doll until he gives up. Oh and a great bit of awesomeness for my beloved Black Widow as she single-handedly takes down a Russian gang. Yes, thoroughly satisfying all round.

That first Cap film is great, indeed, and I love the earlier setting - though watching it these days just makes me want to beg the great Marvel gods to give us an Agent Carter movie, because I adore Peggy so very much. No, two seasons of a TV show is not enough!

Oh yeah, the first Avengers is still the best Avengers out of it, Ultron, Civil War(FUCK YOU MARVEL, THAT IS NO CAP 3), and IW. Only having to juggle a handful of characters compared to EVERYONE gave time to actually develop the characters and stakes while also serving up the fun action.

Yea, there are surprisingly few Marvel characters that you'd consider an "Avengers villain".  I suppose with the merger that puts all of entertainment under Disney's thumb forever, you'd open Dr. Doom (although you'd probably save him for a potential FF reclamation project?) or Galactus (same FF notion...also kind of surprisingly small potatoes post Infinity War?). 


Have they ever figured out who actually has the rights to Namor?  The fan hype would probably be tepid, but I bet he'd actually be a fun villain.

I remembered this, I wasn't sure if the rights had lapsed or something.  Yea, they probably aren't going to bother working out a Sony-style deal just to use Namor.  Shame, I had myself talked into that being a great idea.

Well who else could you trust?

Just read some Flannery O'Connor.  Then you'll feel that Catholic priests in American fiction are just really obsessed with peacocks.

I know I'm late to the party here, but yes, I am also a member of that club. It reminded me too much of an 80s action movie, and I don't mean that in a kind way. I also really didn't like the way it sidelined the women and turned Pepper into the whole "Sexy lamp" thing. The only thing that slightly redeemed it for me was that she got to wallop the guy at the end, but it didn't erase the vague sexist ickiness of it all for me. I could definitely see the point of a movie that would have a character like Tony fall into a sort of egotistical-savior-obsession sort of thing, but only if it didn't validate that view, which I think IM3 did. 

Namor is/was a villain at some point? I just thought he was a terrible "Sea-Spock" Aquaman copy. No thanks.

Just an update, this isnt going on some long hiatus again. Just due to getting married haven't had time to do it last week or this week.

Hey, turns out Married life doesn't actually leave you with as much time as you think. Go figure. Phase 2 is happening..... soon.

Iron Man 3 (2013)

Plot: The Dick is back, and this time he has PTSD.

Then: The first phase was a resounding success for the MCU. The Avengers became one of the highest grossing films of all time and everyone had MCU-mania. Now came time to keep moving forward and keep expanding. This was the first step in Phase 2 which will be a mix of old and new, and what better way to start off with than the most established character of the Franchise. It worked, Iron Man 3 made a crapton of money, and the majority of MCU fans seemed to like it and it was a step up from Iron Man 2. For me? It was the first Iron Man film I liked, it helps that this time the movie was directed by Shane Black, someone who his usual machinations just work for me. It was also the first time I liked Tony Stark.

Now: I still like the film just fine. It holds up decently, there is certainly stuff that is not so good about it, but the stuff I disliked now was the stuff I also disliked then. 

For the stuff I liked, it finally gave Tony some sympathy. You would think being kidnapped and torture in a cave would be enough to give the man sympathy, but ehhhhhh, he was still just an Arms Dealer at that point. He stayed pretty dickish throughout the first and second film, even though he was making some strides, but especially in Avengers he was at his most pompous assholishness. Here? Still kind of a dick, but he actually does have a softer touch. He clearly and openly cares about Pepper, he just isn't open about his own struggles with anxiety and PTSD(which speaks to me in away right now). Turns out the shit in Avengers, especially when he almost died in a wormhole in space, fucked him up, as it honestly should. He even forms a bond with a random kid who helps him out while he is stranded in Tennessee, it plays into Tony's own daddy issues, also the kid has a nice chemistry with Stark, throwing back insults at the same rate Stark is. Ben Kingsley was also pretty hilarious as Trevor.

For the bad/ THE VILLAIN: The villain sucks. I like Guy Pearce, but the dude ends up in a lot of shit roles. It is the third Iron Man movie where a major antagonist is nothing but a scientist/businessman, this time they tried to use the guise of The Mandarin to hide from that fact, but in the end it is of course just a businessman and a not very interesting one at that. The reveal of the Mandarin being fake worked, but most of the other stuff about the plot did not. Shane Black tried to work his noirish tendencies into the film by making part of it a mystery, but the mystery was just uninteresting for the most part. MCU, even in phase 2 there are kinks to workout with the bad guys.

Random Thoughts: 

The Iron Patriot paint job is actually pretty dope.

The opening scene is probably one of my favorite openings of a MCU movie and a lot of that has to do with the song "I'm Blue".

Even the henchman was boring and shit, just a generic white guy(which I do actually like James Badge Dale in other stuff, but man this character sucked).

I will be honest, by the climactic fight scene at the end I was on my phone just browsing at other stuff. I really don't give a shit about Guy Pearce in this movie.

MCU Rankings: 

1. Captain America: The First Avenger
2. The Avengers
3. Iron Man 3 - Still has just enough that I like it more than most of the others.
4. Thor
5. Iron Man
6. Iron Man 2

Up Next: Fuck me.

I guess Thor 2 is the only MCU movie I didn't catch in the theater. How long can our rankings continue to match up?! At some point they get hard to rank because despite being MCU the styles and storylines really do diverge, I promise.

DOUBLE FEATURE

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

Let me preface this a bit. As a kid I was always a fan of the idea of super heroes and comic books. I watched Spider-Man and Batman Animated series, but didn't love them at the time. It wasn't really until Teen Titans came around that my love of the idea was matched by the love of the execution and it actually caused me to look more into the source material. Which led me to discovering the Cap comic books around 2004. I remember it very clearly, it was the start of the Winter Soldier storyline. A guy once thought discovered dead turns out to still be alive and is an superbadass agent who takes out targets. I was immediately drawn into that idea as a 13 year old. It also turns out a lot of others were as well because Ed Brubaker is a great comics writer. 

Plot: Cap makes a new friend and reunites with an old one.

Then: Well, you would think someone who got into comic books proper through the Winter Soldier storyline would be interested in The Winter Soldier movie? Well, sorta. I was not a huge fan of the MCU at the time. I had an active dislike at the time of two of the movies and was very "meh" on two others, I did like the first Cap a lot though, but I was just kinda burnt out on the MCU hype train at the time. I waited till I could see it from.... other sources, and I loved it. It was everything I could want from a Winter Soldier movie. It had an intriguing conspiracy plot, it did justice to the Winter Soldier character, and it moved and developed the Cap character even further. It also is the best use of Fury and Black Widow in a movie and introduced Falcon for all to enjoy. It was easily my favorite MCU at the time. So, how does it hold up after another 5 years of MCU development? 

Now: It holds up fantastically. Still one of the top tier MCU movies if not the very best. The action is better than any other MCU film, it is basically the MI: Fallout of the MCU. All the character work still is great, and the story still very much holds up. Hell, it is a story that is better in retrospect because the twists are nailed perfectly. There is a reason why the major beats of the MCU are now in the Russo's hands, because they elevated the MCU to another level, one that frankly may not have been met since.

Villain: The Hydra conspiracy. Now, while I think the MCU has always had a problem with villains, and want to see the Hydra conspiracy as a direct subversion of what the MCU had been doing up to that point, it probably isn't, but it somehow works very well in that regard. Instead of having some action lame actiony big bad, you get a conspiracy as the antagonist. While they do put a face on it in the Shield director, it is still very unconventional in how they use him. Look at Iron Man 3 for example, kind of the same set up in that both are mysteries where the real villain gets revealed in the back half of the film. Iron Man 3, for as much as I like it, failed big time. Flamin hot Guy Pierce just ended up being lame and not memorable, he had a generic power set and his character just failed to stand up next to Tony goddamn Stark. So, Winter Soldier instead of having the reveal all be on one person, turns out Hydra has just been a shadow group within our own walls, in our politics, in our military, etc. etc. So they don't need it to all be on the shoulders of one character. It is also a good way to bring back the Lackey scientist from Cap 1 in a very creepy scene, as well as just explain why Garry Shandling in Iron Man 2 was such a twat as the Senator going against Stark. The Winter Solider is so good it makes other MCU films better. The onus was instead on the why and the how than the who, and I can't applaud this movie enough for trying something different. The best part? Winter Solider also was executed well enough that it could have it's cake and eat it too.

The film also pulled off having an action big bad that was a good character and was cool as fuck for our hero to fight against, the titular Winter Soldier. They took the main strokes of the comic story and perfectly adapted it to the screen. The Winter Soldier just rocks, you get great pathos from Cap trying to redeem his own friend, even if it means having to sacrifice his own life to do so. Sebastian Stan is also great in a role where he has to do most of his acting through emoting. He also gets to do cool action shit throughout, especially that highway scene, it was masterful. Now I could keep gushing about this film, but you should get the point by now. Winter Soldier succeeded in every way, A+ all around.

Random Thoughts: 

The Cap stealth suit was a needed step up from that shit ass avengers suit.

I didn't even mention two of the best scenes in the film, the Elevator fight and Fury's car chase. This movie is so good that awesomeness just spills out of every corner.

I don't see how someone could watch this film and decide what the Black Widow character needs is a romance with Bruce Banner, but somehow someone did it. 

I am still blown away how the Russo's went from directing sitcoms to directing one of the very best action films of this past century.



Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

Plot: Chris Pratt, a tree, a talking racoon, a wwe wrestler, and the blue lady(now green) from avatar become friends.

Then: The MCU had redeemed itself from the unmitigated turd pile that was Dark World. They made the Winter Soldier, and it looks like the hot streak was going to continue with Guardians of the Galaxy. It seemed like everyone was interested in this film. The trailers were fun and inventive(hell, a lot of comic book movie trailers are still trying to ape this). This was directed by James fucking Gunn and the MCU is seemingly letting him do whatever he wants, and it is starring Chris Pratt who is a fan favorite of anyone who watched Parks and Rec. This movie could do little wrong in the run up to it, and you know what? It did little wrong. It came out and made bank, more bank than I think anyone could have predicted. This was the MCU's first real foray into the Cosmic stuff(that worked), it is also one of their funniest movies. I liked it well enough, I was a little disappointed but only because of how good everyone said it was, but it was more than adequate. I just went in expecting this to check all the boxes I needed, and it just ended up checking like 90%. The new Star Wars this was not(seriously, if you don't remember, people were saying this), but it didn't need to be.

Now: I still like it just fine. It is in the better half of the MCU films, and definitely up to this point in my rewatch it is better than almost all the other films. The visuals are still superb, and I think that is what really sets the Guardians apart from the other films is the production design. I love the look of the different planets and different alien races, this is definitely the corner of the MCU that has some of the most visual panache. The comedy still lands, and the action is more than fine. It also does a great job of handling five different characters and bringing them together, even more if you count Yondu, which in hindsight of the 2nd one, you should. There is just one problem with the film.....

Villain: UGGGH, after all the good Winter Soldier did on this front, we take a huge step back and get almost Dark World levels of bad with the Villain. Ronan just straight up sucks. He is some bland blood knight archetype that has nothing super interesting about him, and the worst part? An utter waste of what is a pretty good actor in Lee Pace. Sure, Ronan actually works better than whoever the fuck that was in Dark World, because he actually has menace, but for a movie where everything else has charisma oozing out of the seams, you should have more than menace. And even then, the only good quality about him gets undermined in the end when he is beat by dance off. Though honestly I think that is a more than fair exchange, the dance off is genius, it is just Ronan can kinda do no good when the rest of the movie does no wrong. On rewatch Ronan doesn't bother me that much, because I know what to expect, but back in the day I think it is what led to me being disappointed in Guardians even though I still liked it.

Random Thoughts:

I really do hope we get a Howard the Duck movie. The MCU is so bulletproof at this point that I think they could pull it off, but sadly with James Gunn no longer in the mix I think it went from like a less than zero chance to now zero chance of happening.

The Yondu stuff works super great in retrospect of the 2nd film. Before the 2nd film it was just another cool character but didn't feel like it had that much to do other than hint towards something with Peter's dad, now that we actually got to see Peter's dad it gives a lot of the scenes a bigger impact.

Another thing that gets a bigger impact? Groot's death. Groot's death never really affected me much because I was spoiled on this movie by seeing Baby Groot before seeing the movie. It was a nice sacrifice, but hey he comes back so it is all good. Turns out though, Baby Groot is not the same groot but more of something akin to an offspring(thanks James Gunn twitter) and I actually was almost tearing up this time around. We are groot.

MCU Rankings:

1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
2. Guardians of the Galaxy
3. Captain America: The First Avenger
4. The Avengers
5. Iron Man 3
6. Thor
7. Iron Man
8. Iron Man 2
9. Thor: The Dark World

Up next: Joss Whedon ruins his career and alters the MCU(production wise) forever